Greg Asner closes Session 2 of TEDGlobal 2013, “Those Flying Things,” with a very different vision of the Earth. We spend a lot of time, money and resources conserving nature, yet, as Asner points out, we know absurdly little about it. Which is why, in an effort to advance our knowledge about biodiversity, he founded the Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO). The CAO uses laser scanning systems and two imaging spectrometers to image the Earth in 3D, capturing landscapes in extremely sharp chemical and biological detail. The CAO, in essence, captures the building blocks of ecosystems.

Asner asks and answers three questions about his work:

1. How do we manage our carbon reserves in tropical forests?

Tropical forests contain vast amounts of carbon stocks, and they need to stay there to prevent global warming from getting worse. Carbon emission levels from deforestation are now so high that emissions equal all the carbon emissions from the global transportation sector. The challenge for governments is targeting exactly where the carbon is in all these forests. In this case, CAO basically serves as a very high-tech accounting system, cutting the forests into millions of slices, mapping landscapes by the density of its carbon stocks.

2. How do we prepare for change in a place like the Amazon rainforest?

The Amazon was so dry in 2010 that the main stem of the Amazon River itself dried up, to devastating effect. CAO imaging was able to reveal that the droughts were causing widespread damage in remote areas, and that climate change seemed to be forcing species to migrate across vast distances. In addition, CAO allowed Asner and his team to digitally remove the forest, exposing clandestine gold miners.

3. How do we manage biodiversity on the planet and help the ecosystem?

With so many species under protection, park managers are under duress to manage systems in ways that can support multiple species. Fires and elephants alike can take their toll on parks and have detrimental cascading effects for many species. How can they be managed? In response Asner and his team are mapping every tree in the Savanna, then seeing which trees have been pushed over by animals. This allows park managers to make better decisions and pinpoint where species need the most help.

Earth has been around for over 4.5 billion years, and modern humans have inhabited it for the past 200,000. Yet in all that time, we’ve learned surprisingly little about the planet’s landscape and the animals that live on it. This is especially true of remote areas such as the Amazon’s dense jungles, the ocean’s vast […]

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Comments (2)

artoddscommented on Jun 11 2013

Amazing information, simplified enough for a novice like me to comprehend.
I have always with little knowledge, believed that man has out done himself by depleting his environment and now has to struggle to find solutions.
Hopefully, enough would be salvaged for my grandchildren and great-grand children to enjoy!